200-Proof Marketing

Many of my recent tests have had to do with building trust which I’ve found is an absolutely critical part of making sales.

After thinking about it more I realized that it’s not so much about Trust as it is about Comfort.

They are similar, but I believe Comfort describes whats going on better.

By making your visitors feel comfortable about their purchase, you can increase your conversion rate to utterly insane levels.

So from this day forward I declare AIDA obsolete. Taking it’s place is AIDCA…

We all know AIDA stands for:

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Action

The new C stands for Comfort.

• Attention
• Interest
• Desire
• Comfort
• Action

While Comfort building seems to fit best between Desire and Action, it should not be confined there.

You should be building comfort from beginning to end. With everything you write you should ask your self: “Will this make the reader more or less comfortable about buying from me?”

Here are some ways you can Build Comfort:

1. Give them what they want for free in your copy. Not everything but enough to show them you know what you’re talking about and can help them.
2. Write your copy so it looks more like a helpful article than a traditional sales letter.
3. Provide as many testimonials as possible. The more the better.
4. Add audio or video to your testimonials.
5. Link to and reference supporting work you’ve done (such as other books in the same market).
6. Say how many people have bought your product if it’s a large number. People will feel more comfortable buying after many others already have.
7. Test adding a picture of your self.
8. Let them know you will be there to help them if they need it.
9. Make it easy for them to contact you if they need help.
10. Assure them their order will be secure.
11. Portray to your visitors that you care for them and care about what happens to them.
12. Expose vulnerabilities. Show them you have weaknesses. Example: “I couldn’t count my fingers without a calculator.” or “As a child I was horribly over weight, even my parents made fun of me. (for a weight loss product)”

Test some of those and let me know what happens. My guess is that most of them will increase your conversion rate.

My multivariate test is still on going but one section has quickly reached statistical validity.

That section is the Contact Information. A little line at the bottom of my copy that says something like:

“If you have any questions please email me at: email@address.com”

The test was to see what effect removing it would have.

Why did this one section become statistically valid so much quicker than all the others?

Because removing it had such a huge effect on my conversion rate.

How much?

Removing the contact information reduced sales by over 300%!

I knew it would hurt sales, but I had no idea it hurt them that much.

You may be thinking “why would he test something he knew would hurt his sales?”

Because I wanted to quickly find out how important this part of my copy was.

Now that I know this is a very important part of my copy, I will test a much more helpful, visible, and easy to use version.

I believe this is an important part of building trust and my past experience tells me that trust is huge.

By making the customer feel like they can get help should they run into any problems, you build trust and make them feel more comfortable about buying.

Take note of these results and start testing different ways to build trust in your copy.

While my current Multivariate test is still on going, I’m seeing some very interesting results so far. Some of which are already statistically valid.

Over the course of many tests, I’ve notice one constant. The more obvious you make it you are trying to sell something the worse your conversion rate will be.

In the past I wrote about Gary Halbert and Claude Hopkins who say the same basic thing:

The more apparent you make it that you are selling the more resistance you run into.

One of the great ideas Gary Halbert came up with was the A Pile - B Pile theory. Which basically said that when people go to their mail box, they immediately sort their mail into two Piles.

The A Pile contains personal letters, bills, bank statements, etc. While, the B Pile is for “junk mail” which will not even be opened.

Anything that looks like an advertisement, usually gets a quick glance and then goes to the B Pile (which ends up in the trash).

He used this theory to make his mailings look like personal letters, even going so far as using normal (more expensive) stamps and “fake” handwriting on the outside of the envelope.

What’s cool is that by looking normal and nonthreatening, his letters got more Attention than others that tried to get Attention by putting red writing all over their envelopes.

This is leading me to make big changes in the way I write copy. I’m quickly turning into a “Sneaky Salesman.”

Here are some interesting things I’ve found:

• Black Headlines consistently beat Red Headlines
• Formating a sales letter to look like a helpful article increases sales
• Simple words sell better than fancy sales type words (Ex: Learn seems better than Discover)
• Trust is huge and people seem to trust “normal” people more than salesmen.

Those are just a few of my findings so far.

One thing’s for sure, the next sales letter I write will be as “sneaky” as possible. I will probably make it look like an article throughout and include helpful information that the customer is looking for (to help build trust).

Then at the end, or possibly even on “page 2″ I will hit them with the Call to Action, and Guarantee.

One thing that’s annoyed me for awhile is how so many people say to use a Red Headline.

My tests tell me this is entirely wrong. Black has always beaten Red in my tests for headline color. I’m currently testing this yet again, and Black and Blue are tied while Red is doing horribly.

Maybe some markets respond better to Red Headlines, but I sell to quite a few markets and not once has Red beaten Black.

I don’t get it… Why are people hanging on to the Red Headline, much less recommending it to others?

Test it for your self and you will see what I’m talking about. If you are currently using a Red Headline, you should immediately test a Black and/or Blue one.

My opinion:

Red screams Ad, while Black looks more like a helpful article. But then how do we explain Blue doing well? That’s a little odd.

I’m testing alot of things right now, and look forward to telling you the conclusive results when I get them. Already, I’m seeing something very interesting that has me excited about what I will test next. I just need to wait for the results to be statistically valid first.

Google had a surprise in store for me today when I checked my Adwords account. They made their Multivariate Testing tool called Website Optimizer available free for Adwords customers.

Evidently they’ve been testing it for a while, but this was the first I had heard of it.

This tool could easily double your profit in a fraction of the time it takes old A/B Split Testing.

Multivariate Testing is the king of testing (in my opinion). Some might favor Taguchi but from what I’ve seen it doesn’t work as well for optimizing websites.

So what’s the difference between Multivariate Testing and A/B Split Testing?

A/B Split Testing only tests two different webpages at a time. Usually the two pages are identical except for one part (like your headline).

Visitors are split between the two pages randomly and the one that converts the most visitors into sales wins. Slowly and over the course of many tests, this can greatly increase your conversion rate (the percentage of visitors that buy or take action).

Multivariate Testing is somewhat similar except it allows you to test many different parts at a time. In a sense, it allows you to run many Split Tests at once.

In a Multivariate Test you can test your Headline, Price, Guarantee, Testimonial placement, and more all at once.

Let’s say you want to test your Headline, Guarantee, and Background Color. You decide to test 3 different headlines (the original and two new ones), 3 guarantees, and 3 background colors.

That would give you 27 different combinations of your sales page. Each time a visitor comes to your website they will be randomly shown one of these combinations.

One visitor may see headline 1, guarantee 3, and color 3 while the next visitor will see headline 2, guarantee 1, and color 3.

You can then not only view which variables of the different parts do the best but also which combinations do the best.

The bottom line is Multivariate Testing allows you to increase your conversion rate much faster than A/B Split Testing would allow.

But here’s the kicker…

The fastest way to increase your conversion rate when testing is to find which parts of your webpage effect your conversion rate the most and then find the best options for those parts.

For example: On your first test you test every part of your webpage you can think of. When the test is over you can see which parts increased or decreased your conversion the most.

Next, you retest only those parts.

It’s the 80/20 rule in action (look here for my article on the 80/20 rule). A small percentage of the parts of your webpage, have a large effect on your conversion rate.

I will start some tests tonight with the new Website Optimizer tool and give a more detailed report later.

I’m fairly confident it will replace the Multivariate Testing software I created simply because it will be easier to set up and more convenient.

Much more on this and testing in general coming soon…

I’m constantly getting questions about my calculator. Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy to answer them all.

So here are some of the common questions:

Can I have a stand alone version or the source code?

No, I don’t have time to program a stand alone version and since it brings a decent amount of traffic to this website, I don’t want to just give it away.

However it is just a math equation, that you can learn freely on the ‘net. It may take you awhile to figure out if you’re not a math geek though.

Why doesn’t the Calculator show a exact percentage instead of above 80, 90, 95, etc?

That’s because I couldn’t find a math equation for getting the exact probability, instead I found a table of results and their probabilities and used it to program it the way it is.

Is this the best way to tell if my results are statistically accurate?

As far as I know, yes. There are many other equations for this type of thing, including one called a “Confidence Interval” which gives somewhat different results.

My calculator uses the Chi Squared equation with a Yates Correction. Which is often used to determine whether survey results are valid.

If someone knows of a truly better equation, let me know and I will make a calculator for it. For now it seems like this is the most dependable equation.

In other news…

This website was attacking by some spam robots that spammed all kinds of weird stuff in the comments. Evidently someone specifically designed software to spam this blog.

Unfortunately I had to disable comments to stop the spam. When I get time I will rewrite the php and add some type of validation that will block the spam.

Also I’ve spent the past few months working on my biggest project yet, and so far the results are amazing.

It’s not an IM product, but if I decide to sell it (via a membership site), I will post a link to it here so you can benefit from it.

That’s it for now…

One of my favorite things to read about on other marketer’s blogs is their test results. Very few ever give them out, yet say they are religious testers.

I too consider my self an insane tester (it can be alot of fun) but sometimes I get lazy and stop testing for a while.

I imagine it’s the same for other marketers but maybe they’re just greedy?

One thing you should always keep in mind is that what works for one market or salesletter may not work for another, so it’s important to test every change you make to your sales page.

Here are some results, (the ones I can remember) that have boosted my conversion rate…

1. Use a blue background just like you see on this website. The color code is #003399 I think. I’ve tested this many times and every time it has beaten a white or light grey background.

2. Make your headline any color but Red (preferably Black, although I’m about to test Dark Blue as an option). Red has always failed against Black in my tests.

4. Make your salespage’s Table Width between 65 and 70 percent. The main Table on this website is about 65% I think.

5. Use a little “Satisfaction 100% Guaranteed” picture in your guarantee. Did I mention you should put your guarantee in a table with a different background color from the rest of the website to make it stand out?

6. Test different PS’s because they are one of the most read parts of a sales letter. Try using it to reinforce a deadline, justify the price, or reiterate your guarantee.

7. Add a fake picture of your Ebook or Software box to your salesletter. My tests have shown this to increase conversions in most cases.

8. Try adding some audio at the beginning of your salesletter. Something as simple as paraphrasing the first few paragraphs of your salesletter can and has boosted conversions by over 200%.

9. Try adding Video near the top of your salesletter. This is still new territory but early results look very promising.

10. Prices ending with 7 tend to out sell others. This isn’t true in all markets and can be tough to figure out, but as a general rule $29.97 will usually outsell $29.95.

OK, there ya go… Ten things you can test right now that will almost certainly increase your conversion rate.

Don’t forget to test them though(individually), because nothing is an absolute in this business. There may be general rules but there are always exceptions.

I’m not going to tell you what I’m thinking just yet. Read below first then I’ll explain…

“One must be able to express himself briefly, clearly and convincingly, just as a salesman must. But fine writing is a distinct disadvantage. So is unique literary style. They take attention from the subject. They reveal the hook. Any studies done that attempt to sell, if apparent, create corresponding resistance.”
Scientific Advertising by Claude Hopkins

Now go read this Chapter of Gary Halbert’s Boron Letters: http://www.thegaryhalbertletter.com/Boron/TChapter18.htm

Did you read all that? Did you find the similarity in the two? If not, keep trying before reading on…

If you notice both texts are from Copywriting legends and both say that you shouldn’t make it obvious you are trying to sell something.

If it looks like a blatant Ad from the start, people are likely to ignore it and move on. That makes perfect sense, because I do that quite often.

I’m guessing the typical internet sales letter has become a “Blatant Ad” and my stats are reflecting this.

On one of my niche sites, over 90% of my visitors spend less than 10 seconds on my sales pages before leaving. Yet that site still averages a 3% conversion rate.

That’s just screaming to me that something is up. Either the stats aren’t reliable, I have a horrible headline, or people can easily tell it’s a Ad and leave before reading anything.

The current thinking is that at the very least people will read your Headline before deciding whether to stay or leave. Then if you’re headline is good they will be interested and keep reading.

People are told the Headline is there to get attention (which it is), so they think they should make it stand out even more. Why not make it BRIGHT red, or make it enormous? Because that might be telling the customer “THIS IS AN AD, PLEASE GO AWAY!”

In theory something that doesn’t look like an Ad but instead a piece of helpful information should draw people further into the copy, thus increasing sales. I’ve found corresponding proof of this by looking at some successful copy of the past.

So I’m going to potentially create a little stir and say “All the Guru’s are doing it wrong!”

I can’t prove it yet and I could be completely wrong, so I’m going to run a test on one of my niche sites.

I’ve already rewritten the sales page so it looks more like a helpful article at first than a Ad, and I should have the test up and running in a few hours.

Update: I forget the exact results of this test but I know it inceased my conversion rate.

You probably know Testimonials are important and you’ve probably seen how much they’re used in just about every form of Direct Marketing.

But I bet you still don’t understand how powerful they can be and the enormous effect they can have on your conversion rate.

Just watch any Infomercial… The better ones are composed of about 70%-80% Testimonials.

You might remember John Reese’s Relaunch of Traffic Secrets. The sales page was absolutely packed with Testimonials. Over 100 pages worth I think.

So what’s the key to getting the most out of your Testimonials?

First of all… Don’t call them Testimonials in your Copy. Call them Success Stories, Reviews, or anything besides Testimonials.

Testimonial is a dry, boring, and unexciting word. You’ll get better response with one of the alternatives.

Secondly, they’ve got to be interesting and specific.

“Thanks for your book, it really helped me alot”

Short, boring, and undetailed Testimonials like the one above are a waste of space. You want your Testimonials to tell a story, give a lot of detail, and keep the customer interested and excited.

When asking for testimonials, ask your customers to be detailed and if possible put the testimonial in story form.

Maybe even give your customers the option of taking a survey that asks them specific questions like:

In what ways did my product help you?

Tell me, in detail which parts of my product helped you the most.

and so on…

Help the customer write the testimonial you want.

And the last key to a Great Testimonial that will skyrocket sales is….

“Believability”

If your potential customers don’t believe your testimonials, they’re useless.

You want your testimonials to be as believable as possible because the more believable they are, the more they will increase your sales.

How do we make them more believable?

Here are the three easiest ways…

1. Add a picture in the testimonial. The picture can be of the customer, a before and after, or a picture of results achieved.

For example: You sell a book on Quilting and your testimonials show pictures of the Quilts made by your customers.

A picture not only makes the testimonial more believable but it also draws attention to the testimonial.

2. Add Audio to the testimonial. If you let your potential customers listen to the testimonial, it might make it a little more believable.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be the person who wrote the testimonial talking in the audio either. You can hire a couple voice actors if you want to.

3. Video Testimonials… This is quite possibly the future of testimonials because seeing and hearing the person giving the testimonial makes it much more believable.

Do you want an instant increase in sales?

Test adding a couple video testimonials to your sales page and I bet you’ll see your conversion rate increase instantly.

I did a test on one of my Niche websites a few months ago that demonstrated the power of testimonials. It was a new product so there were no testimonials yet, and sales were sluggish. The product was barely profitable.

That is until I got my first testimonial. When I did, I immediately emailed to person asking if they could elaborate and give me a more detailed testimonial as well as a picture if possible.

Almost a week later I got a reply with a testimonial that was about a page long and included a picture of the “results” from using my product.

I featured that testimonial right smack in the middle of my copy(a little toward the top, but below the fold) so it stood out like a Figure Skater in a Hockey Game.

That testimonial more than doubled my conversion rate and made the product a money machine for years to come.

Testimonials are so powerful, that I believe you could sell with nothing more, except a brief benefit driven intro explaining the product and a strong close.

No more body copy, just believable, exciting Testimonials.

So, do yourself a favor and start spending more time on your testimonials. Run a few tests, even something as simple as making them stand out more could easily increase your profits.

Alright… I know I’ve been MIA from this blog for awhile and that’s pretty common. I’ve got ADD(eventhough I don’t believe there’s any such thing) or maybe I’m just interested in a lot of different things.

Anyways the blame goes to Battle Field 2, which is a addictive online computer game. Well that and about 10 other things.

After doing some thinking about my websites(which ones to keep and which ones to let expire), I’ve decided to change the whole way this site works.

I’m going to start giving away much of the software I’ve written. Some of it will be helpful to all marketers, and some of it will only be helpful to marketers who are at least average with PHP.

If you do know PHP you’re in luck because you can use some of the scripts I’m giving away to make your own software to sell or offer as a bonus.

The first step was to put a Statistical Significance Calculator on this website for other marketers to use.

It should be one of the most important tools used by any Marketer. Whether you’re doing Internet Marketing, Direct Mail, Magazine, or even Infomercials.

The key to making any Marketing business more profitable is testing, and testing is worthless if you can’t trust your test results.

So take a look over on the right side of this webpage and you’ll see a link to the new Calculator.